Canon MF634Cdw / MF733Cdw native scanner resolution

[canianon]

I was just about to pull the trigger and order a mf733cdw but I read the scanner is limited to native scanning at 300dpi and anything above this is achieved through image processing. Has this been addressed through a firmware upgrade or is this correct, in which case I'm likely to go for a single purpose color laser instead and look elsewhere for image scanning. 

This is the comment I found online, "I had both the MF634Cdw and MF733Cdw and returned both. The scanning specs on both printers are wrong. I spent many hours with Canon reps, and finally their engineer confirmed that both the MF634Cdw and MF733Cdw scan at native 300 dpi optical only via the ADF. Anything higher than 300 dpi has to be done through interpolation with the software via a PC, which is why you can't scan more than 300 dpi optical from the printers' control panel.

Canon uses the same scanning hardware as HP, and there is a defect on the scanning hardware, where the scanning element is slightly off the vertical axis that causes the scanned document to be crooked. You have to look hard and scan vertical parallel lines to notice this defect. The only fix is to use the software to correct it."

thanks for any clarification.

[canianon]

I've been doing more research on this and I found some more details pertinent to this matter. I understand the HP and Canon share the same scanning hardware and this reduction to 300x300 only occurs when using the automatic document feed (ADF) unit and scanning, copying or scanning with the glass bed doesnt restrict the scanning resolution. Theres some discussion on the HP forum this was a decision made to balance seed, cost and quality. This was rebuked becuase copying via the ADF does not suffer the same limitation and therefore appearsto be a marketing based decision to prevent cannabalisation of their scanner lines. They've come under some criticism for not being clear in their communications around this matter. 

I've taken a closer look at the Canon specs and they still aren't 100% clear, i.e 

Copier Specifications

Copy Resolution: Up to 600 x 600 dpi 

Scanner Specifications

Up to 600 x 600 dpi (optical), 9600 x 9600 dpi (software interpolated resolution)

Send Specifications (at the bottom of the page)
Sending Method: SMB, E-mail, FTP, iFAX Simple
Color Mode: Full Color, Monochrome
Scan Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi, 200 x 200 dpi

Its look like scanning is 600dpi but why is scan resolution under send specifications listed as 300dpi? 

[Patrice · Accepted solution]

Hi canianon.

I can provide more information about the sending resolution.

Sending is limited to 300 dpi because of the limitations of sending emails and the receiving units on the other end of faxing. Most email providers have an upper limit of 10 MB. Scanning pages in 600 dpi will cause that limit to be reached quickly  with only a few pages.

Regarding the previous post, the ADF only supports a maximum of 300 dpi, while the platen supports a maximum of 600 dpi. To scan a document to the computer from the platen, in 600 dpi, will require using the scanning software. Anything higher than 600 dpi will be interpolated by the the software. You can view more about the resolution guidelines at this [LINK].

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions, please call us at 1-800-OK-CANON (652-2666), Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET (excluding holidays).